NOTE: I wrote this, according to the time stamp on the file, back in 2009. It was published by a libertarian student organization called Young Americans for Liberty. It doesn't seem to be otherwise webbed anymore, so here it is again:
You can tell a work of fiction is influential when other writers are
still grappling with its implications nearly a quarter of a century
later — usually with limited success.
Since its publication in the mid-1980s, Watchmen has been the
poster child for pop art that transcends its origins. Having garnered
accolades usually reserved for highbrow literary fiction, Watchmen
is the reason we now refer to comic books as graphic novels. It
birthed countless newspaper stories with unfortunate headlines like
“Bam! Pow! Comic books aren’t just for kids anymore.” It
changed the aesthetics of superhero comics, both for better and for
worse. And this year, of course, it inspired a major motion picture
that, if nothing else, perplexed audiences expecting the next The
Dark Knight or Iron Man.
It is little surprise, then, that libertarians have latched onto
Watchmen, claiming it, along with the works of Ayn Rand and
Robert Heinlein, and the 1960s cult-favorite television series The
Prisoner, as part of libertarianism’s artistic canon.
The graphic novel, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave
Gibbons, is set in an alternate 1985, in which the existence of
superheroes has turned the United States into a virtual dictatorship.
President Richard Nixon, having engineered the repeal of the 22nd Amendment, is in his fifth term, and corruption and chaos are
rampant. As gangs terrorize the streets, the U.S. and the Soviet
Union plunge toward seemingly inevitable nuclear annihilation.
The main point of divergence between our 1985, which turned out
comparatively well, and the 1985 of Watchmen is the existence
of Dr. Manhattan, the one costumed hero in Watchmen who
possesses superhuman abilities. With Dr. Manhattan’s help, the U.S.
wins the Vietnam War, a victory that Nixon uses to become all but
president for life. The Soviets, meanwhile, regard Dr. Manhattan as
such a threat that they’re willing to risk nuclear war to avoid
U.S. domination. In Watchmen, the old adage “Better dead
than Red” might as well be “Better Armageddon than American.”
Dr. Manhattan, in short, changes everything. As one character in the
graphic novel observes, “It is as if — with a real live Deity on
their side — our leaders have become intoxicated with a heady
draught of Omnipotence-by-Association, without realizing just how his
very existence has deformed the lives of every living creature on the
face of this planet.”
Dr. Manhattan is the literal embodiment of amoral power. Following
the accident that gives him his superhuman abilities, Dr. Manhattan
gradually becomes more and more removed from his humanity. Time, for
him, has no real meaning because he can see past, present, and future
simultaneously. As a result, death has no meaning for him, either. As
such, he is the perfect tool for the politicians who would seek to
exploit him.
It’s also no surprise that the U.S. government in Watchmen
maintains a monopoly on superheroes. A law bans costumed adventurers
except for those who work for the state, namely Dr. Manhattan and the
equally but more aggressively amoral Comedian. The only masked
crimefighter working, illegally, outside of the system is Rorschach.
Of the characters in Watchmen, Rorschach comes closest to
being a real libertarian, although Moore’s portrait of
libertarianism isn’t exactly flattering. Rorschach is brutal,
smelly, and, most importantly, psychotic. Moore bases him on The
Question and Mr. A, two characters created by Spider-Man co-creator
Steve Ditko, an adherent of Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy.
Despite his antiauthoritarianism, Moore is still a man of the
political left, and his Rorschach is a not-at-all-subtle critique of
Ditko’s “right-wing” libertarianism.
Libertarians, however, tend to focus on the positive character traits
hidden beneath Rorschach’s psychosis. Rorschach believes in truth
and justice, and he is uncompromising in his pursuit of them, which
is why he continues to work outside of the government even after the
government criminalizes costumed vigilantism. He is, whether Moore
likes it or not, the moral center of Watchmen, and readers —
not just libertarians — gravitate toward him. Rorschach remains the
book’s most popular character. Rorschach may be insane, but at
least he sticks to his principles, even in the face of death.
Even as Moore’s Rorschach was capturing readers’ imaginations,
Frank Miller’s daring interpretation of an old mainstay was doing
the same, and for the same reasons.
Published at about the same time as Watchmen, Frank Miller’s
The Dark Knight Returns covers many of the same themes and is
no less influential. It casts a middle-aged Batman in the Rorschach
role of uncompromising individualist and Superman in the Dr.
Manhattan role of government stooge. Yet despite the shared dark tone
of both works, the similarities between Watchmen and The
Dark Knight Returns end there. Moore’s only solution to the
problem of Dr. Manhattan is for Dr. Manhattan to leave Earth, leaving
humanity to its own fate. Miller, however, has faith in superheroes,
so long as it is the right superhero.
Miller’s Batman is a quasi-libertarian anarchist, a genius hero
who, like the characters in Rand’s novels, uses his brain to thwart
the brute, physical power of Superman and the state. And like the
image of the student standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square,
Miller’s version of Batman as an ordinary man prepared to stand up
to seemingly omnipotent power has endured, inspiring everyone from
libertarians to politically apathetic fanboys to subsequent Batman
writers.
The libertarian/Randian themes are even more explicit in Miller’s
follow-up, The Dark Knight Strikes Again. In the sequel,
Miller brings in Ditko’s The Question as a mouthpiece for
Objectivism, of sorts. The difference here is that Miller’s version
says, “I’m no Ayn Rander! She didn’t go nearly far enough!”
But can libertarians put their faith in even a libertarian superhero?
The treatment of Batman post-Miller raises lots of red flags. Just as
Miller’s Batman developed a contingency plan to take down Superman,
Batman, as portrayed in more recent comics, has formulated plans to
deal with just about any superhero who, for whatever reason, might go
bad. Unfortunately, time and again, Batman’s plans have fallen into
the wrong hands, with disastrous results. For example, in the recent
series Countdown, Batman creates Brother Eye, an artificial
intelligence to watch over all of Earth’s superpowered heroes and
villains. Yet, as one might guess from Brother Eye’s Orwellian
name, this ends badly when a covert government agency takes control
of the A.I. for its own purposes.
As a new generation of comic-book writers picks up and runs with the
ideas Moore and Miller first explored, it seems there is need for a
libertarian critique of even “libertarian” superheroes.
Ultimately, even superheroes who operate without government sanction,
so as to preserve their independence and integrity, run into problems
because they still serve a law-enforcement function. They’re still
appendages of the state, if only unofficially.
Marvel Comics’ recent Civil War story arc illustrates the
point. After a botched operation in which a team of young superheroes
accidentally kills 600 civilians, the political leaders in Marvel’s
fictional universe take a page from Watchmen. They pass a law
outlawing all costumed superheroes except for those who agree to
register with and work for the federal government. The Superhuman
Registration Act splits the superhero community, with
pro-registration heroes lining up behind Iron Man and
anti-registration heroes backing Captain America.
Although it is never spelled out so explicitly in Civil War,
the pro-registration side has a point. What are superheroes, anyway,
except unauthorized, unaccountable law enforcement agents?
Superheroes don’t obtain search warrants. They don’t read
suspects their Miranda rights. If they screw up, they don’t face
disciplinary action. And it’s almost impossible for a wronged party
to sue them for misconduct. Just try serving a court summons to the
Hulk. In short, all of the real-world problems associated with police
misconduct are potentially worse when it comes to superheroes. They
exist outside the rule of law.
Against that possibility, the Superhuman Registration Act seems, in
libertarian terms, to be the lesser of two evils. Of course, as
libertarians are fond of pointing out, the lesser of two evils is
still evil. Any law that can be abused eventually will be abused. In
our world, Republicans constantly pass laws they would never trust
Democrats to enforce and vice versa. Each side, when out of power,
complains that the other is abusing the powers of government. Yet
when the sides swap places, the incoming party never repeals the laws
that the other side abused.
In the Marvel Universe, Iron Man currently finds himself on the
outside, on the run and wanted for crimes he didn’t commit.
Meanwhile, the villainous Green Goblin, in his civilian identity of
Norman Osborn, has become leader of the government’s registration
effort. If there is any consolation, it’s that Iron Man may have
learned his lesson. After all, he is one of the smartest characters
in the Marvel Universe, which puts him leagues ahead of our
real-world politicians.
For all their efforts, no one writing superhero comics has yet come
up with an answer to Moore’s critique of superhero power. Moore’s
own solution isn’t really conducive to writing ongoing superhero
comics. He sends Dr. Manhattan packing. Dr. Manhattan decides to
leave our galaxy — end of story. When all else failed, Moore opts
for abolition, which is, of course, what one would expect of any
anarchist, of either the left-wing or the libertarian,
anarcho-capitalist variety.
Perhaps that is why Watchmen maintains its resonance with
libertarians, despite Moore’s antipathy toward much of libertarian
thought. Unlike Miller, Rand, Ditko, and others who gave us idealized
libertarian supermen who could fly in and save the day, Moore takes a
more radical, yet more realistic approach. His hero-turned-villain,
Ozymandias, is named so as to evoke the image of the broken idol in
Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem of the same name. Essentially, Moore is
telling us to put not our faith in idols, even if they’re wearing a
smile and spandex.
The Watchmen movie and the renewed interest in the graphic
novel couldn’t have been better timed. Several comic-book artists
have taken to depicting President Barack Obama in superheroic terms.
Alex Ross’ painting of the president striking a Superman pose
emblazons posters and T-shirts. Spider-Man and Obama do the fist bump
in a recent issue of Amazing Spider-Man. And for his part, the
new president seems happy to play up his heroic image, as when he
posed with the statue of Superman in Metropolis, Ill.
Whatever your politics, if you’ve grasped the message of Watchman,
images like that ought to have you at least a little worried.
